Superheavy Syllables in Jordanian Arabic; a Case Against a Language-Wide Trimoraic Ban

Abstract

This study argues for the existence of a three-way weight distinction in Jordanian Arabic. It challenges a previous claim made by Broselow et al. (1995) that a trimoraic ban is active in Levantine dialects of Arabic. Khattab and Al-Tamimi’s (2014) study on Lebanese Arabic similarly claims support for the trimoraic ban. This study offers another analysis for observed shortening in Jordanian Arabic. While previous studies relied on affixation patterns to elicit a trimoraic syllable or considered syllables where the coda consonant also occupied the onset position of the following syllable, the current study isolates the role of geminate consonants to the coda position and considers bimoraic and trimoraic syllable contrasts with affixation as a separate variable. It is found that affixation and phrase position have a significant effect on the duration of the coda consonants.The crux of this, Khattab and Al-Tamimi’s, and Broselow et al.’s arguments revolves around the idea that phonetic measures can be taken as indicators of underlying phonological configurations. Specifically, it is assumed that differences in the duration of trimoraic syllables should correspond to differences in moraic structure when compared with bimoraic syllables. Shortening in the trimoraic syllable would indicate a phonological ban on superheavy (trimoraic syllables) via a process proposed by Broselow et al. known as Mora-Sharing. This study identifies the trimoraic syllables CVVG and CVCC, explains their moraic count, and then compares the prosodic duration measurements to comparable bimoraic syllables. Other variables are controlled and measured including emphasis, gemination, and stress.